Chad and LALIGA agree long-term plan to professionalise national football

Chad’s Ministry of Youth and Sports has signed a multi-year partnership with LALIGA aimed at developing and professionalising football in the country.

The agreement was formalised at LALIGA’s headquarters in Madrid on Thursday, 1 October 2026, by Chad’s Minister of Youth and Sports, Nair Abakar, and LALIGA president Javier Tebas.

The collaboration will combine LALIGA’s management expertise and methodology with local knowledge in Chad. Its initial priorities include identifying young talent across the country, training coaches and club officials, providing technical support for the future National Football Academy, and assessing how to strengthen and professionalise the national championship.

The project will be delivered progressively, beginning with capacity-building and the creation of methods and tools intended to produce a lasting impact. It will be carried out with Chad’s institutions and football stakeholders, using local experience alongside LALIGA’s knowledge of talent development, training, governance and sporting structures.

During the Madrid visit, the Chadian delegation received a presentation on LALIGA’s main areas of work and held a planning meeting with the project team to discuss the next stages.

Nair Abakar said: “Our ambition for Chadian football is to offer our young players an environment in which they can flourish, enable our clubs to develop and make our championship more competitive.

“We chose this partnership with LALIGA to help achieve that ambition. It combines recognised expertise in professional football with the local knowledge and commitment of our football community. Together, we want to establish a programme whose results will be reflected in the careers of players, the work of coaches and the daily life of our clubs.”

Javier Tebas said LALIGA was “delighted” to support Chad and that its advisory work in different parts of the world allowed it to share its knowledge and methodology while working with local institutions and professionals.

“Through this collaboration, we want to help generate knowledge, capacity and tools that can continue to develop sustainably over time,” he said.

Tresor Penku, LALIGA’s general manager in Africa, said the partnership would allow LALIGA’s experience to support the development of football in Chad while helping local stakeholders establish “solid and sustainable foundations”.

The first phase will include a nationwide talent-identification campaign, a monitoring system for players discovered, technical advice on the design and organisation of the future National Football Academy, and training for coaches, club executives and sporting officials.

LALIGA will also conduct a strategic assessment of the national championship and produce recommendations and a development roadmap. This structural phase will establish a shared methodology, strengthen national expertise, provide a detailed understanding of clubs and competitions, and identify the conditions required for a wider operational programme.

Later stages will focus on putting the planned reforms into practice. They will include the operational launch and consolidation of the future academy, ensuring continuity in player identification, training and monitoring, as well as implementing recommendations for the league and clubs.

The agreement represents a new long-term link between Chad and Spanish football. For LALIGA, it is an unprecedented partnership in sub-Saharan Africa and forms part of its wider international work supporting football ecosystems.

LALIGA says it has delivered more than 1,000 sporting projects in 60 countries since 2015, working with federations, leagues and clubs in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. Its Madrid-based team includes UEFA Pro-qualified professionals with club and international experience, as well as specialists in methodology, psychology and physical preparation.

LALIGA is a private sporting association comprising the 20 clubs of LALIGA EA SPORTS and the 22 clubs of LALIGA HYPERMOTION. It organises Spain’s national professional football competitions, has more than 268 million social-media followers across 16 platforms and 20 languages, and operates in 35 countries through eight offices. Its social programmes are delivered through LALIGA FOUNDATION, while LALIGA GENUINE Moeve is the world’s first professional football league competition for players with intellectual disabilities.